Deford: When 'Deflategate' Dust Settles, Put Goodell Out To Pasture

By Frank Deford

Published August 12, 2015 at 5:01 AM EDT

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell addresses the Pro Football Hall of Fame Gold Jacket Ceremony in Canton, Ohio, on Thursday. The NFL Players Union has sued to get a judge to void Goodell's four-game suspension of Tom Brady in the "deflategate" scandal.

In an odd way, the longer and more tangled that what has been called "deflategate" goes on, the more it becomes about the commissioner of the National Football League, Roger Goodell, than it does about Tom Brady, whom Goodell suspended for four games — deeming him guilty of having some part in deflating footballs in a playoff.

A hearing on Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Richard Berman does not directly relate to Brady's culpability. Rather, the question is whether the commissioner had the authority to act as he did. Mostly, Judge Berman simply wants the NFL to take care of its nasty internal affairs and just go back to making more oodles and oodles of money.

Yes, it's all very messy, but then that's pretty much how everything ends up when Goodell is asked to adjudicate.

Click the audio link above to hear Deford's take on the latest in "deflategate."